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Thursday, September 5, 2013

The 12 Best Reasons Why The U.S. Is Not Now, And Never Should Be, A Christian Nation

Many of the daily posts reprinted on this site come from Addictinginfo.org, and with good reason, as we see from today's essay from Deborah Montesano, "The 12 Best Reasons Why The U.S. Is Not Now, And Never Should Be, A Christian Nation."
Most of us are probably sick of seeing the whiny old banal phrase by Conservative Sheeplets online, "But the United States was founded as a Christian nation," and Ms. Montesano gives us enough information to throw back into the Sheeplets' faces and send them back to their mommies, although filled with the symptoms of cognitive dissonance, " frustration, hunger, dread, guilt, anger, embarrassment, anxiety,"*:
"Christians today have the same problem as their fellow believers of two hundred years ago: 'One of the embarrassing problems for the early nineteenth-century champions of the Christian faith was that not one of the first six Presidents of the United States was an orthodox Christian.' –The Encyclopedia Britannica, 1968.

"The ‘Christian’ label did not even fit some of our early Presidents. However, whether religious or not, the great intellects of democracy had a vision of all that the United States could be. They wouldn’t have dreamed of imposing religion on their fellow Americans; they knew that this nation’s greatness came from not being a Christian one. In their own emphatic words:

"1) 'Enforced uniformity confounds civil and religious liberty and denies the principles of Christianity and civility. No man shall be required to worship or maintain a worship against his will.' Roger Williams, Puritan minister and founder of Rhode Island, in The Bloudy Tenet of Persecution, 1644.

"2) 'As the government of the United States of America is not on any sense founded on the Christian Religion, – as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion or tranquility of Musselmen (Muslims), – and as the said States never have entered into any war or act of hostility against any Mehomitan nation, it is declared by the parties that no pretext arising from religious opinions shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries.' –Treaty of Tripoli

"–initiated under President George Washington, 1796

"–signed into law by President John Adams, 1797

"–ratified unanimously by the Senate, 1797

"–Published in full in all 13 states, with no record of complaint or dissent.

"3) 'But how has it happened that millions of fables, tales, legends, have been blended with both Jewish and Christian revelation that have made them the most bloody religion that ever existed.'–John Adams, letter to F.A. Van der Kamp, Dec. 27, 1816

"4) 'Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between man and his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship… I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should "make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof," thus building a wall of separation between church and State.' –Thomas Jefferson, letter to Danbury Baptist Association, CT

"5) 'I consider the government of the United States as interdicted by the Constitution from intermeddling with religious institutions, their doctrines, discipline, or exercises.'–Thomas Jefferson, letter to Samuel Miller, 1808 [note that this does not say Christian religion; it refers to all religions, equally]

"6) 'History, I believe, furnishes no example of a priest-ridden people maintaining a free civil government. This marks the lowest grade of ignorance, of which their political as well as religious leaders will always avail themselves for their own purpose.' –Thomas Jefferson to Baron von Humboldt, 1813

"7) 'Religious bondage shackles and debilitates the mind and unfits it for every noble enterprise.' –James Madison, letter to William Bradford, April 1, 1774

"8) 'Who does not see that the same authority which can establish Christianity, in exclusion of all other religions, may establish with the same ease any particular sect of Christians, in exclusion of all other sects?' –James Madison, A Memorial and Remonstrance, addressed to the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of VA, 1795

"9) 'What influence, in fact, have ecclesiastical establishments had on society? In some instances they have been seen to erect a spiritual tyranny on the ruins of the civil authority; on many instances they have been seen upholding the thrones of political tyranny; in no instance have they been the guardians of the liberties of the people… A just government, instituted to secure and perpetuate it, needs them not.' –James Madison, A Memorial and Remonstrance, 1785 .

"10) 'During almost fifteen centuries has the legal establishment of Christianity been on trial. What has been its fruits? More or less, in all places, pride and indolence in the clergy; ignorance and servility in the laity; in both, superstition, bigotry and persecution.' –James Madison, A Memorial and Remonstrance

"11) 'He had no faith, in the Christian sense of the term– he had faith in laws, principles, causes and effects.' –Supreme Court Justice David Davis, on Abraham Lincoln
"12) 'Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.' –First Amendment, Constitution of the United States.

*****
* (From Wikipedia again: "A classic illustration of cognitive dissonance is expressed in the fable "The Fox and the Grapes" by Aesop (ca. 620–564 BCE). In the story, a fox sees some high-hanging grapes and wishes to eat them. When the fox is unable to think of a way to reach them, he decides that the grapes are probably not worth eating, with the justification the grapes probably are not ripe or that they are sour (hence the common phrase "sour grapes"). This example follows a pattern: one desires something, finds it unattainable, and reduces one's dissonance by criticizing it. Jon Elster calls this pattern "adaptive preference formation".[19])

As we all know, the words "God," "Christian," or "Christianity" do not appear either in the Constitution nor in the Declaration of Independence, and with so many of the above quotes coming from the authors of those documents, Madison and Jefferson, the case is closed.

You should note that anytime you see a Sheeplet quote anything from the Founding Fathers that doesn't seem to synch with the above quotes, do a web search: the quote is always a lie.
We should note parenthetically that Jefferson feared that if Church and State were not separated, that the State would suffer, while Madison noted in that instance that the Church would suffer. In other words, Jefferson sought to protect the State from the Church, and Madison sought to protect the Church from the State.

And as we see today, both were correct.

The imposition of the concept of the United States as a country founded via Christianity is, of course, an invitation to a theocracy, in the case of the U.S., an ecclesiocracy: "An ecclesiocracy...is a situation where the religious leaders assume a leading role in the state, but do not claim that they are instruments of divine revelation."

We provided more information on the subject in our post from a year ago, "Separating Church And State," and sadly the Conservative Sheeplets still think that they know more about the founding of the country than the Founders themselves.

Whether theocracy or ecclesiocracy, they have no place in this country, and all efforts to impose them should be considered as a treasonous or seditious act against the country. Joining religion and government is enough reason in itself - besides the acts of the vast criminal conspiracy called "Conservatism" - to criminalize Conservatism, and punishing the ringleaders and fellow travelers of that phony "political philosophy is a must when Conservatism is criminalized.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------"You'll never have a quiet world till you knock the patriotism out of the human race."

George Bernard Shaw-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------